Whatever happened to the Regal Shoe Factory?

Tuesday

The factory was an icon of Whitman’s once-booming shoe industry and sat on a property that was owned by several shoe manufacturers, dating back to the William L. Reed Company around 1866.

Two fires destroyed factories at the site in the final decades of the 19th century. Regal Shoe Company took over the property around 1924 and built a new factory. The property was transferred to Regal Shoe Manufacturing in 1954, but shoes had stopped being made there by the end of the decade.

Ownership of the four-story factory building passed along to several other businesses after that, including a cardboard manufacturing company. It was torn down in 1973 to make way for a new shopping center that was never built.

The site was purchased by H.G. Whitman Development in 1987, who planned a strip mall on the site. But a series of development errors and delays killed the project, and the company stopped paying taxes on the property, prompting the town to place a tax lien on it in 1993.

Last we heard

Between 2005 and 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency removed about 4,000 tons of contaminated soil from the site, which contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lead and mercury. Three tanks were also removed from the ground, which together held about 10,000 gallons of contaminated liquid and sludge.

In November 2012, the EPA reached a settlement with two related business, Brown Shoe Company and Brown Group Retail, to reimburse the federal agency $450,000 for its cleanup.

Brown Shoe Co. had previously merged with Regal Shoe Co., and subsequent mergers brought the land under the control of Brown Group Retail. The EPA alleged that Regal was responsible for the pollution, but liability for the property shifted to Brown due to the mergers.

What’s happening now?

Not much. Town Administrator Frank Lynam said Tuesday the site still “has some significant contamination.” A 2017 report commissioned by the town found that portions of the site continued to contain contaminated debris, notably in a former landfill in the southwestern corner.

The report also states that the layer of clean soil created by the EPA's work in 2005 and 2006 may erode over time, which could lead to further contamination.

Lyman said the town has not foreclosed the property because they don't want to assume liability for the cleanup. He said the town has sought commercial interest in the site, but a recent wetlands assessment found that just four of the site’s roughly 20 acres were dry.

“This limits the commercial development of the site,” Lynam said. “Right now, our hands are kind of tied.”

The former Regal site is south of the Regal Marketplace on South Avenue in Whitman.

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